Articles
Lortie, D.C. (1975, 2002). Schoolteacher A
Sociological Study (2nd Ed) Illinois, USA: The
University of Chicago Press.
Phelps, L.W. (1991). Practical Wisdom and the
Geography of Knowledge in Composition.
College English, 53, 863-85.
Pillai, S. (2012). Does the college teacher evolve
at all? A perspective on English teaching in
tertiary education. IATEFL, Voices 226
Schon, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner
- How Professionals Think in Action. New
York: Basic Books.
Shulman, S. H. (2011). The Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning: A Personal Account
Assessment Literacy:
A Panacea for Many Problems in Language Assessment
What is Assessment Literacy (AL)?
AL may refer to ‘the range of skills and
knowledge that stakeholders need in order to deal
with the new world of assessment’ (Fulcher, 2012,
p.115). It is the ability to plan, design, conduct
and evaluate assessments and interpret and use
assessment results for taking pedagogic decisions.
This term has started gaining importance across
the world with the movement towards making
assessment learning - learner-centred, classroom-
oriented, teacher-designed, need-based, authentic,
and so forth. English teachers need some of the
above-mentioned abilities to carry out assessment
related duties effectively.
Current Assessment Scenario in India
After Examination Reforms in 2006, assessment
in schools got decentralized and teacher-based
assessments were promoted. The aim was to make
assessment a ‘support for learning’ (Tharu, 2011,
p. 30), something that can be a part of classroom
instruction. In other words, teachers were expected
to engage in ‘dynamic assessment’ (Mathew, 2006,
p. 11). It was a good change at the policy levels
though not a very well planned one. The intention
of replacing tests, that are anxiety-ridden,
memory-based, summative, centrally designed
and paper-pencil-based, with assessments that are
anxiety-free, classroom-based, developmental,
integrated, diagnostic, proficiency-oriented and
innovative was an admirable one. However, the
© FORTELL
and Reflection. International Journal for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 5,
No.1. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://
www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl.
Slevin, James. (1996). Disciplining Students:
Whom Should Composition Teach and What
Should They Know? Composition in the
Twenty-First Century. Eds. Lynn Z. Bloom,
Donald Daiker, and Edward M. White.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 153-65.
Stenberg. S & Lee. A. (2002). Developing
Pedagogies: Learning the Teaching of English.
College English, Vol. 64, No. 3. Retrieved
April 2, 2013, from http://www.jstor.org/
stable/3250737
Santosh Kumar Mahapatra
santosheflu@gmail.com
Santosh Kumar
fortell.org
Mahapatra is a Ph.D
recent establishment in January, 2013 of Centre (Language Testing)
for Assessment, Evaluation & Research (CAER), Student in the
Department of English,
an assessment training programme for teachers by University of Hyderabad.
His research interests
CBSE indicates that the change in policy had not include Language
really paid off the way it was expected to. There Testing, Research
Methodology and
is a late realization about the necessity of training Teacher Education.
teachers in classroom assessment and developing
their ability to assess learners’ progress. And if
this is the case with government school (CBSE)
teachers, we have a lot to worry about English
teachers in state-run, semi-aided and private
schools. In addition to this, the levels of AL of
other stakeholders like teacher-trainers, syllabus
and curriculum designers, textbook writers, etc.
must be considered seriously because together
with teachers they constitute the Educational
system.
What Level/s of Assessment Literacy?
It has been pointed out many-a-times that English
teachers (along with other teachers) in schools
need some training in assessment. But very few
attempts have been made to define the abilities
they are expected to develop. What they actually
require is training in only some aspects of
language assessment at a certain level. While it
is important to talk about teachers’ abilities in
assessment, it is equally vital to ensure that the
other ELE professionals mentioned in the previous
section also attain an acceptable level of AL.
The abilities, knowledge, etc. that more or less
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 Articles
comprise AL are presented in the following table:
S No. Abilities/ knowledge / skills / principles
1 Principles (formal knowledge) of
assessment (validity, reliability,
authenticity, etc.)
2 Applying of these principles to the
construction of classroom assessments
3 Language acquisition and proficiency
4 Different methods of assessment
(Self-assessment, peer-assessment,
examination, portfolio, journal, etc.)
and selecting appropriate one/s for
particular classroom purposes
5 Constructing classroom assessment
tasks
6 Developing assessment criteria and
rubrics
7 Interpreting assessment results
8 Giving constructive and diagnostic
feedback to learners
9 Evaluating the effectiveness of
assessments
10 Keeping record of learners’ progress
fortell.org
needs and expectations and the curricular goals in
relation to ELE in the state and the country.
Developing Assessment Literacy through
Training
The above-mentioned ideas, about dividing
components of assessment literacy, aim to simplify
a few things related to the assessment needs of
English teachers and other ELE professionals
in India. However, putting the suggestions
into practice is a hard job. Like the process of
Curriculum Design, development of teachers’
AL should be a continuous and cyclical process.
It should start with the analysis of teachers’
classroom assessment needs. In the next stage,
the required level of AL should be defined in
clear terms. Then the training programme should
be designed and training should be imparted
to help teachers reach that level. Teachers
should be allowed a gap of a few months to
internalize the training content. Their classroom
assessment practices can then be evaluated after
the gap and in the light of its feedback, the
training programme can be evaluated and altered
accordingly. As shown in the following block
cycle, this process of developing AL should

with regard to using language incorporate findings of new research in the

areas of Classroom Assessment and Language
The above mentioned abilities, knowledge, skills Assessment so that teacher-developed classroom-
and principles can be further divided into levels based assessment can become a fruitful and
such as: Expert, Advanced, Skilled and Beginner healthy activity. Also, it can help in infusing
and each level needs to be defined realistically growth, freshness and innovation into language
and carefully keeping the educational context and assessment in schools.
needs of the target group (of professionals) in
mind. For example, an English teacher in class
VIII (CBSE) can manage with only a beginner
level expertise in principles of assessment,
whereas, a teacher-trainer will need nothing less
than an advanced level of expertise in the same
area. But the same teacher may need something
between skilled to advanced levels when it comes
to applying these principles of assessment to
developing classroom assessments. This kind of
division can help us avoid putting unrealistic
demands on teachers in relation to assessment
abilities.
The level of AL for one homogenous group of
professionals, for example a group of secondary
school English teachers working in state-run
schools in Andhra Pradesh, can be arrived at
after conducting a thorough Needs Analysis. The
analysis must take into account several factors
like the educational background, the teaching and
assessment responsibilities, and the institutional/ The above model can be utilized in both pre- and
organizational demands and constraints of the in-service teacher education programmes. As
professional in addition to some information this is an open model, there is always room for
about the target group/s of learners, their language additions and changes. The five stages can be

10 FORTELL July, 2013 Issue no. 27


further elaborated and fine-tuned so as to make it
more convenient and usable.
Conclusion
Teacher education has been one of the main
concerns of Indian education system (NCTE,
2010; Government of India & NCTE, 2012), and
assessment is one of the ‘inadequately-focused’
areas in teacher education programmes across the
country. Furthermore, it is surprising that ‘…in
India where English is believed to be contributing
to the overall development of the country, there
is no special policy for ELT and its practitioners’
(Mahapatra, 2011, p. 109). So it may not be wise
to expect any sudden change in the practice of
English language assessment in classrooms at
school level. However, we have a good start with
Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)
and Examination Reforms, at least in terms of
policy. It can be hoped that the changes in policy
find their way into classroom practices. Training
teachers in assessment and developing their
AL can be an appropriate and necessary step in
this direction. It will help us achieve the goal
of making teaching and assessment ‘mutually
dependent and supportive’ (Tharu, 2011, p. 30).
References
Fulcher, G. (2012). Assessment Literacy
for the Language Classroom. Language
Classroom Strategies to Develop
Critical Thinking
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who
— Rudyard Kipling
Traditionally, the focus in English language
classrooms has been on enhancing the four skills
LSRW – listening, speaking, reading and writing
among learners. Along with these four skills,
thinking skills too need to be developed. Teaching
children to become effective thinkers is rooted
in the constructivist paradigm and is increasingly
being recognized as an immediate goal of
education. It is possible to enhance the creative
and critical thinking skills of students through
practice and instruction. Thinking skills enable a
© FORTELL
Articles
Assessment Quarterly, 9:2, 113-132. doi:
10.1080/15434303.2011.642041
Government of India & National Council of
Teacher Education. (June, 2012).
Government of India, Ministry of HRD,
Department of School Education and
Literacy. (June 2012). Restructuring and
Reorganization of the Centrally Sponsored
Scheme on Teacher Education. Retrieved
January 29, 2013, from http://www.teindia.nic.
in/Files/AWPB/Guidelines_TES-June-2012.
pdf .
Mahapatra,S.(2011).Language Training in ESL
Teacher Education Programmes in India. In
P. Gunashekar, A. Padwad & D. Pawelec
(Eds.), Starting, Stimulating and Sustaining
English Language Teacher Education and
Development (pp. 107-111). Hyderabad:
British Council.
Mathew, R. (2006). Achievement Testing to
Proficiency Testing: Myth or Reality.
Fortell, 9, 6-11 National Council of Teacher
Education (2010). National Curriculum
Framework for Teacher Education. Retrieved
fortell.org
December 9, 2011, from http://www.ncte-
india.org/publicnotice/NCFTE_2010.pdf.
Tharu,J. (2011). Beyond the Achievement-
Proficiency Divide: a New Perspective on
Language Assessment. Fortell, 22, 28-30.
Kirti Kapur kkapur07@yahoo.com
Kirti Kapur, Ph.D is
an Associate Professor
in the Department of
Education in Languages,
National Council of
Educational Research
and Training, New Delhi,
India. She specializes in
the areas of curriculum,
syllabus and text book
development, teacher
training, research
person to infer, reason, reflect, evaluate and make and consultancy.
judgments.
This ability makes students creative, practical and
reflective. Therefore, the activities/tasks taken
up in the class should be such that they make
students think, explore and question. It has also
been observed that students are not encouraged to
question. Every child has a right to ask questions.
They should be encouraged to do so. This requires
designing activities and tasks that promote
thinking and questioning among children.
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